Growing up without a nationality has devastating effects on children’s lives. Statelessness brings with it discrimination, and denial of access to education, health care, housing and employment. It exacerbates the problems faced by people who are for the most part already vulnerable.

Globally, up to 70,000 children are born into statelessness each year. In Europe, some stateless people arrive as refugees and asylum-seekers, but the majority were born here.

On the 22nd November Jean organised an event in the European Parliament with the European Network on Statelessness to bring attention to this important, and growing, problem and wrote this blog on the issue.